Campaign rids UK roads of 60,000 dangerous tyres

A road safety campaign by our retail business, Protyre, which is the UK’s largest independent chain of fast fit and mechanical centres, successfully removed just over 60,000 poorly maintained or illegal tyres from UK roads.

Protyre, which fits more than one million replacement tyres annually through an expanding network of over 100 centres, achieved the impressive feat by performing free safety checks on almost 250,000 van and car tyres.

On average, each Protyre centre identified and removed around 2,600 tyres that either had a tread depth of under the legal limit of 1.6mm, or another defect that made the tyres dangerous.

Protyre was also able to undertake further tyre checks during special events held in supermarket carparks in partnership with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service.

The campaign took place during October’s Tyre Safety Month, where the key message to motorists was ‘Don’t chance it, check it!’. This was particularly important as data recorded by TyreSafe, the national tyre safety charity and promoter of Tyre Safety Month, indicated that up to one in four cars on UK roads could have had at least one tyre at or below the legal tread depth limit of 1.6mm during 2016.

Simon Hiorns, Protyre’s retail director, said: “This was a great effort by all involved to not only check and remove so many illegal and dangerous tyres, but to also educate thousands of motorists about tyres and safety.

“Tyres are the only part of a vehicle in contact with the road surface, so the less tread a tyre has, the less grip it will have, which severely compromises a vehicle’s ability to accelerate, corner and brake.”

Stuart Jackson, chairman TyreSafe, said: “TyreSafe applauds Protyre’s efforts to remove so many dangerous and severely worn tyres from Britain’s roads. Now we’re in the midst of winter, having tyres in good, roadworthy condition is particularly important to reducing risks of an incident while driving. No matter how new your tyres are, they need to be checked at least once a month and before long journeys for air pressure, condition and tread depth – don’t chance it, check it.”